Bangladesh female basketball player alleges abuse by coach, pulls out of SA Games

Tasfia Chowdhury, a member of Bangladesh national women’s basketball team, has pulled out of the upcoming South Asian Games alleging abuse by coach Sabuj Mia.

The coach has denied the allegations of setting on the players during training. He says he only pretended to beat them up to frighten them.

Shaikh Bashir Ahmed Mamun, a vice-president of Bangladesh Olympic Association or BOA, says they will take action if they find truth in the allegations.

The 13th edition of the SA Games is scheduled to open on Dec 1 in Nepal. Bangladesh are contesting in 25 of the 27 disciplines, including both men’s and women’s basketball.

Tasfia’s father Kawsar Chowdhury has posted on Facebook a video which allegedly shows Sabuj chasing a player and slapping her during practice.

Kawsar said he had sent an email to the BOA informing the association about the incident attaching the video.

“My daughter was very excited in the beginning as she practised in the past few months and dropped a semester for the SA Games. I allowed her to go the BKSP a few weeks ago for practice as I thought she would do many things there that would be impossible if she had to travel from home every day,” Kawsar said.

“She called me one day and said that the new coach was very abusive. He was slapping everyone and hurling abuses,” the father said.

He said he and his wife had tried to calm their daughter initially, but they were “very much upset” when Tasfia showed them the video.

“She returned home on Friday and said that she was not going to play,” Kawsar said.

Tasfia alleges Sabuj had been abusing players for quite some time.

“He used to slap me for the slightest error during practice before we went to the BKSP. Nothing is perfect during practice. He first used to beat up daily the girls from other districts, not Dhaka,” she said.    

“I’ve spoken to the girls from the district level. They are from rural families. They don’t even know their rights as members of the national team. They think the financial facilities they get from the camp are enough for them. So they don’t say anything out of fear,” Tasfia said.    

She alleged Sabuj beat her up during a recent Kolkata tour as well.

Sabuj denied the allegations. “Just watch the video. It happened at the BKSP around a month ago. I didn’t touch the girl. I just showed her my hand. Please watch it carefully,” he said.

“Sometimes the players need to be frightened. I did it because she was missing lift repeatedly,” he added.

The player in the video is from Dinajpur, according to Sabuj.

“She has a good height and is a very good player. She did well during the Kolkata tour. You will realise whether I beat her up if you watch the video.

“You need to be rude sometimes. A girl from Dinajpur is playing basketball. You know, she has to be pressured if necessary. Isn’t that so? But I didn’t beat her up,” he said.

The BOA never allows beating up a player in any circumstance, Mamun told bdnews24.com.

He said he would sit with the complainant and the coach on Monday.

“Such incidents occurred in taekwondo and swimming a few days ago. We took tough measures. Though the players and the coaches had reached a negotiation, we cancelled their foreign tour,” he said.